Avlonyah Arifi

Avlonyah Arifi (1761-1834) was the Governor (Sanjakbey) of Gaza under the Ottoman Empire at the time of the French Revolutionary Wars.

Biography
Avlonyah Arifi was born in Gaza, Damascus Eyalet, Ottoman Empire in 1761 to a Sunni Muslim family of Turks. Arifi rose in the ranks of the Ottoman civil service in the eyalet, and the regional government in Damascus appointed him to be the Sanjakbey of Gaza. Arifi commanded the small garrison in the city, and he was the commander of the garrison when the French army of Napoleon Bonaparte assaulted the city in 1799. Arifi fled the battlefield as his forces were driven from the city, and he fled to Beirut. Arifi was reappointed Sanjakbey after the French withdrawal, and he died in 1834.